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Yesterday, I gave an auction in which responder tried to convey a maximum for his bidding up to that point. There are other sequences in which this theme can arise. For example, opener bids two no-trump, and responder transfers into a major, perhaps bidding three diamonds to show five or more hearts. Immediately opener should show how much interest he has in hearts.

NEW DELHI - India readied its first lunar mission on Wednesday, seeking to convert its new wealth into political and military clout and join an elite group of nations with the scientific know-how to reach space.

CAMDEN, N.J. - The first witness to take the stand in the trial of five men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at the Army's Fort Dix testified Tuesday that civilians commonly have access to the base in New Jersey.

CHICAGO - Nearly a fourth of widely used new-generation biological drugs that treat several common diseases produce serious side effects that lead to safety warnings soon after they go on the market, the first major study of its kind found.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities have indicted 991 suspected militants on charges that they participated in terrorist attacks carried out in the kingdom over the last five years, the interior minister said Tuesday.

CHICAGO - A former high-ranking Chicago police official was arrested Tuesday on charges he lied when he denied that he and detectives under his command tortured murder suspects, federal officials said.

BEIJING - Chinese police called Tuesday for the extradition of eight alleged separatists accused of plotting a campaign of terror to coincide with the Beijing Olympics - a scheme that reportedly included bomb attacks within China and in unspecified countries in the Middle East and South Asia.

NEW YORK - Wall Street pulled back Tuesday as investors decided to cash in some of the previous session's big gains as they warily comb through another batch of quarterly earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 250 points.

TEHRAN, Iran - Russia, Iran and Qatar took their first serious steps toward forming an OPEC-style cartel for natural gas on Tuesday, a prospect that has unnerved energy-importing nations in Europe and the United States.

DEAR DR. GOTT: I was recently in the hospital because of lightheadedness. I am a 73-year-old woman with a history with a brain aneurysm. In 1966, I was diagnosed with an aneurysm in the right side of the circle of Willis. (I guess you know what that means.) Because of this, the hospital doctors ordered a CT scan of my head. No one told me anything, but I got copies of my test reports and have determined I have encephalomalacia in the area of the right temporal lobe.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.